Labor vows to dump watered down school discipline strategy

A plan to water down school discipline by halving the length of time a student can be suspended will be dumped should NSW Labor win government next year.

A plan to water down school discipline by halving the length of time a student can be suspended will be dumped should NSW Labor win government next year.

Opposition leader Chris Minns has also pledged to develop a more “holistic” and “fairer” student behaviour management policy in consultation with education staff, parents and disability support groups.

The commitment follows teacher revolt over a State government plan to reduce the length of school suspensions while also limiting the number of times a student can be sent home to three.

Advocates of the new policy argue it is a welcome change from the punitive approach in place now while addressing the high rate of suspensions of vulnerable students, including those with disabilities or of an indigenous background.

Opposition leader Chris Minns has also pledged to develop a more “holistic” and “fairer” student behaviour management policy.

However, the NSW Teachers Federation and NSW Secondary Principals’ Council argue the strategy will put staff and student safety at risk while also reducing the time schools can work with other agencies to change their behaviour.

Announced in February this year, the new behavioural strategy was to begin in term 2, but has been delayed to term 3.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said consultations with stakeholders had been underway on the policy “for months”, including the Secondary Principals Council “as recently as yesterday”. “We will continue to work with all stakeholders to get the implementation right so students will have the support they need,” she said.

Mr Minns said should the policy be in place in March next year, a Labor government would dump it with consultation to take place on a more appropriate strategy.

Teachers and principals – rather than Education Minister Sarah Mitchell – were best placed to decide on how to ensure safety in schools, he said.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said consultations with stakeholders had been underway on the policy “for months”.

“Unlike the Minister for Education, I trust the principals and teachers who have decades of experience to make these decisions,” he said.

“This Government has made it harder for parents of students with complex needs to receive the support they require, and now they are shifting that burden onto teachers and principals with unworkable policies.

“The Perrottet Government should not be charging through schools with a new policy without properly listening to the concerns raised about student safety.”

Among reasons students were suspended last year included bringing a bong or drugs to school, violence, bullying and assault.

The new policy reduced the length of time students from kindergarten to year 2 can be sent home from a maximum 20 days to five.

Among reasons students were suspended last year included bringing a bong or drugs to school, violence, bullying and assault.

Older students will have their suspensions limited to a maximum of 10 days.

Schools can ask the department to have this limit increased by a maximum of five days on a case-by-case basis.

Most grounds for long suspension currently result in an immediate suspension of a student.

Under the new policy, principals are advised they should only consider suspension after first considering all possible alternative behaviour support measures.

Principals’ Council president Craig Petersen said the shortening of suspensions simply limited the amount of time schools and parents were able to organise appointments with agencies such as Headspace or child psychologists as part of addressing issues that could be contributing to a child’s behaviour.

“The thing that is causing us the most angst is the halving of the days as it takes time to co-ordinate all those appointments,” he said.

In welcoming Mr Minns pledge to consult with principals, Mr Petersen said suspensions was never the first port of call for schools with lots of work undertaken with a student and parents before that option was taken.

He said a better option would be for schools to be given more resources to deal with extreme behaviours such as more school counsellors along with greater professional development for staff.